THERE are lovers’ tiffs. And then there are bust-ups that threaten to
jeopardise your £1 billion business and cost you more than £400m.
Simon Nixon, founder of Moneysupermarket.com, Europe’s biggest
price-comparison website, is in both camps — though the estrangement from
his girlfriend has proved less significant than the bust-up with her
brother, Duncan Cameron.
It’s complicated. And a prickly subject.
“Duncan was never my mate,” says Nixon. “He was just my girlfriend’s brother
when we started out.”
But he owns 50% of Moneysupermarket.com, so where is he today?
“I dunno. I think he races cars,” shrugs Nixon. “I haven’t seen him for years.”
Right. So where is she? Is she now your wife?
“No. She’s gone. Completely gone.” Nixon waves his arms, showing both his
horror at the idea and his determination to get back to discussing how to
find the best mortgage lender on his website.
Not yet. Come on: what was her name?
Nixon, 39, narrows his eyes and shifts awkwardly in his chair.
“Okay, if you really want to know, her name was Kate,” he says. “We only went
out for about a year — she came from near where I grew up, near Chester. So
I met her brother, Duncan, who was this amazing computer and IT genius. He
had been developing computer programs since he was five.
“The worst deal I ever did was giving him half the business.”
I’m intrigued, but this time I’m not just being nosey. Moneysupermarket.com is
one of the fastest-growing websites in Britain: more than 4m people use the
site to find the best price of anything from a mortgage or credit card to
airline tickets, car insurance and, more recently, electrical goods
including iPods and washing machines.
Customers click on links that go through to the selling companies’ sites to
buy the product. Moneysupermarket.com collects a commission per click from
the companies, which can range from 30p for travel insurance to £30 for a
mortgage.
Nixon and his team, based near Chester, have made no secret of their ambitions
to continue to expand the business rapidly — and to fund this by floating
the company, which analysts reckon is worth £1 billion.
But behind the excitement is the fact that Cameron could exert his control any
time.One commentator said: “This is the most extraordinary situation. It’s
all very well that the business is booming but at any time the boat could be
severely rocked by Cameron.”
Moneysupermarket.com calls him the “silent partner” as though this were
cordial. In reality, there’s no agreement to keep him silent — he could
reappear, demand a place on the board, influence strategy or block a float.
Nixon admits this is a real concern.
“You’re right,” he says. “Duncan could be a total loose cannon and that’s one
of the reasons for wanting to float. Of course, any float would need his
approval but it would be great to get the structure sorted out.”
A float would also make Nixon — and Cameron, who could not be reached for
comment this weekend — wealthy men. Analysts estimate they could get paper
fortunes of more than £400m, with 18 other managers who own equity getting
big windfalls too.
Figures for 2006 are not yet published, but Nixon says the company’s turnover
will be more than £1 billion with profits of more than £30m. Staff numbers
have grown from fewer than 400 last year to nearly 600.
Nixon says: “As a management team, we know we would have to make big changes
if we went public. It would affect the corporate structure, the way we run
the business — it might slow us down.”
He adds: “We are interested in going abroad. Germany and Spain are the
countries we prefer but they are not quite yet ready for us. Although they
use the internet to search for products, they generally don’t buy online.
“So there’s no rush — we can wait. At the moment, reports are saying we could
be worth £1 billion — maybe next year they will say we’re worth £2 billion.”
But analysts say the timing is not going to get any better for
Moneysupermarket.com. The stock market is strong and welcomes floats — and
competitors are gaining ground.
Admiral, the financial-services group, is pumping money into Confused.com, a
similar venture that started as a motor-insurance comparison site but has
since grown into home insurance, loans and the credit-card market. According
to the latest figures by KPMG, Confused.com now has 16% of the market,
compared with Moneysupermarket.com’s 40%. Similarly, Uswitch, which started
comparing gas and electricity prices, is now expanding into loans and credit
cards.
Nixon says: “The competition is growing. I always say the biggest threat to
our business is complacency. We can’t take the foot off the accelerator.
It’s up to us to innovate and drive the business forward.
“On the management side, we are not arrogant enough to assume that we will
come up with all the answers. In fact we are always trying to find ways of
getting new ideas.”
Nixon has thrown open the doors wider than most with the launch of his Making
Millionaires scheme.
“To start with, we invited all our staff to come up with a new idea for an
internet trading business. If someone comes up with a good idea, we will
fund it, use our IT department to build it, market it and use our customer
base too. The employee gets a stake in the business and the choice of
whether to run it or not. A few months ago we opened up the competition to
people in northwest England and we have had some great ideas — and one
brilliant one.”
Nixon’s own success is the result of a bright idea when he was young. He was
the son of a RAF pilot and spent his youth moving house between different
airforce bases in Britain and Germany.
“I found the whole thing very unsettling,” he said. “Just as you were getting
used to one school and finding friends, you would be off again. I got really
behind in school, too.”
At 12, Nixon moved with his parents to Connah’s Quay in north Wales and was
sent to a “strict, Catholic school run by nuns”. He went on to Nottingham
University to read financial accounting but didn’t last long.
“I hated it. It was boring,” he said. “So I dropped out after the second year
and got a job in Chester. I started with pensions and life insurance but
found this tedious too. So I decided to specialise in mortgages.”
Within months, and aged just 20, Nixon spotted his opportunity.
“There was nothing in the market that compared prices and showed the best
mortgage deals. So I set up a magazine that listed the companies and all the
prices,” he said.
“I did it from home, working every night and every weekend. I sent them out
free and then got subscriptions for £11 a fortnight.”
Within two years, in 1989, Nixon was reaping £10,000 a month. But he realised
the market was changing and it couldn’t last. “Brokers were getting
computers. They needed to compare prices daily, not every two weeks.
“It was then that I said to Duncan Cameron, who was 18 and doing an IT course
at university, that there was this opportunity. He quit and we spent a year
building the software for Mortgage 2000.”
The business grew steadily over the next few years until, in 1999, Nixon had
another brainwave.
“When Freeserve launched free internet access, I knew it would be big. I
thought, wouldn’t it be great if retail customers could compare mortgage
deals, and other prices?”
Nixon worked on Moneysupermarket.com and, because he was using the cash
generated by Mortgage 2000, Cameron got half the business. The site was
launched in 1999 and thanks to Nixon’s idea of putting his technology on the
big internet portals — such as Yahoo, Freeserve and newspaper sites — it
grew rapidly.
“I was pushing for the business to grow quickly, but Duncan didn’t like
it. Also the internet was different technology. So he left.”
Nixon carried on pushing Moneysupermarket.com into a radical diversification
programme. Last year, he launched Professional Advisor Alliance Leads in
which brokers and other professionals are alerted by e-mail or text whenever
a customer clicks for advice on Moneysupermarket.com.
“It could be just as big as Moneysupermarket.com. We’ve got so many ideas,
it’s all very exciting.”
Vital statistics
Born: August 7, 1967
Marital status: single, no children
School: St Richard Gwyn, Flint
University: Nottingham
First job: self-employed financial consultant
Salary package: £250,000 plus bonus
Homes: Chester, Abersoch and Marbella
Car: Porsche 997 Turbo
Favourite book: Serious, John McEnroe’s autobiography
Favourite music: Snow Patrol
Favourite film: Gone With The Wind
Favourite gadget: juicer
Last holiday: Barbados
Interests: squash, running, cooking, travelling, waterskiing
Simon Nixon's working day
THE Moneysupermarket.com chief rises at about 7am and reaches for the FT and a
glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice. He leaves his house in the centre of
Chester at 8.45 am and heads to the company’s headquarters in Ewloe to
arrive for 9am.
The working day begins with a catch-up with his PA before launching into a
series of meetings with managing directors, his IT department and the heads
of the Moneysupermarket.com business channels.
Lunch is usually an informal affair with the directors over a cup of green tea
before returning to meetings, often with design staff. He then turns to the
internet. “I spend at least an hour a day looking at competitors’ businesses
as well as our own and analyse them through the eyes of the user.”
Nixon usually leaves the office at about 6.30 pm with an armful of trade
magazines and a notepad to jot down ideas. “Then I unwind with a game of
squash or a run before cooking and relaxing.”
Down time
“I FIND cooking very relaxing and I really enjoy it,” says Simon Nixon.
He is also a keen golfer, although he has no handicap because he refuses to
join a club, preferring instead to play a wide range of courses to enjoy the
variety.
In addition, the Moneysupermarket.com boss is also keen on squash and running
to keep fit.
“Another love of mine is travelling, and whenever I get a spare weekend I go
somewhere in Europe or the UK. I’m particularly fond of the Cotswolds,
Abersoch and the Lakes,” says Nixon.
He is also on the verge of buying a speedboat for waterskiing.
